Thursday, August 5, 2010

T-1 and counting!

"How do instruments work?" "What can go wrong with instruments?" How do we analyze the data?"

These were all questions posed by Dr. Clements in his all-morning lecture on meteorological instrumentation. At least presumably...I had to skip the class to take care of all the mickey mouse last-minute chair stuff.

BUT...I caught up with the class after lunch on the roof of our building (Duncan Hall) where they were doing their first radiosonde release.

Here we all are on the roof on a lovely day, with temperatures in the mid 70's, clear blue skies, and fabulous views of the southern end of the Santa Clara valley.

As is ALWAYS the case with instruments (in my limited experience!), something went wrong. In this case, the balloon sailed off, but the software package didn't receive anything (reminds me of last year!!!) We think the balloon was under-inflated and rose too slowly (and thus fooled the software). But the students all got the gist, which was the main idea!

Once that was done, really the only thing left was packing! The forecast is looking good for Saturday - fingers crossed!